Sunshine
by EternalDayDreams
Summary: The titan war is over, and camp half-blood has just gotten back to normal, but of course that can't last long. A group of mythical beings, the Guardians, have taken a special interest in their camp. And at the center of the newly stirring chaos is 16 year old daughter of Apollo, Darcy Yew. Just her luck. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Jack Frost**

Jack let out a sigh of defeat as he slumped down against the furry arms of the yetis parading him through North's workshop. This had to be the tenth time he'd been called there this week, and it was what, Friday It's not like he was busy, though. It was mid June, and as you might imagine, the winter spirit didn't have to do too much. There was the Southern hemisphere, but he didn't hit as many places there, and didn't have any believers down there yet, so he never stayed long. He couldn't go visit Jamie, he was on vacation in some deathly hot place for most of the summer. Besides, Jamie was getting older, and he'd already gone through a few phases of not-believing. But in no way did his open shcedual make it okay for North to call him here as often as he did.

_The big guy had better have a good explanation for this_, Jack thought with a huff as he landed unceremoniously before the door of the Guardians HQ of sorts. He had just enough time to straighten himself out before the doors were opened, and he strode in. Surprisingly, the guardians didn't acknowledge his presence in the slightest, too busy staring at the large globe serving as the centerpiece of the room.

Jack's shoulder's slumped as he stared at the four, sending them a bitter glare. They dragged him out of his home-er, lake, carried him all the way back to the North Pole in, you guessed it, a giant drawstring bag, only to ignore him when he showed up. He'd seen the signal, North didn't have to send Phil after him. Jack straightened again and noticed that they were still glued to the screen.

Glancing at them skeptically, Jack stepped forward to fall in like with the others, weaving between them to get a look.

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What the hell is _that_?

Taking up the screen was what appeared to be a camp, full of kids of various ages. At first his eyes spotted out the normal things, an archery range, some stables (he ignored the horses, well, pegasi, at first), arts and crafts, a dining pavilion a rock wall, a patchwork of cabins that looked nothing alike (hence, the patchwork), and a large lake glittering in the evening light. But that's where the normal ended. That rock climbing wall he mentioned? yeah, there's lava pouring down it. Like fresh out of a volcano lava. Then there were the horses. They looked normal enough until one decided to ruffle it's gigantic freaking wings, and that was when Jack noticed the wings on the rest of them. Next, the campers. All of them wore bright orange T-shirts, and were in the process of putting on full Greek battle armor, and selecting from an arsenal of deadly gathered at that marble dining pavilion he mentioned before. Oh yeah, the thing was marble. Solid black marble with a big, sealed up crack and at least a dozen picnic tables They leaned against the tables and chatted away casually as they adjusted their bronze armor. And then, there was the centaur.

Jack involuntarily took a step back, his eyes wide and unblinking. He'd seen a **lot** of weird things, but this was a first. Strolling-er, trotting through the crowd of teens, campers, was the torso of a middle aged man with a scruffy salt-and-pepper beard, connected to the body of a white stallion. Alright, Jack admitted, maybe North did have a good reason for calling him there.

The horse-man, centaur, stopped just outside the crowd, in a clearing stretching out against the treeline of a massive forest. He began talking to the campers, occasionally shifting on his hooves or swishing his tail. As the campers paused in their work to listen, Jack decided to speak up.

"So what am I looking at, exactly?"

The others seemed to jump a bit, as if they hadn't realized he ever arrived. _Oh yeah,_ Jack remembered, his brow falling in annoyance, _because they __**didn't**__ notice when i showed up_. Sandy sent a friendly wave, which Jack returned half-heartedly as Bunnymund took a step towards him, casting the immortal teen a look. "**That**, is what we're trying to figure out."

Jack stared back blankly, then turned to face the others. He vaguely recalled the day before, when he was sitting around North's office, bored out of his mind. They'd been searching for some weird disturbance in New York lately. Apparently it'd shown up once or twice before, but never like this. It seemed to come from some place along the Long Island Sound, but apparently none of the guardians had ever been there, which is especially strange considering the large number of children. Most of them were teenagers, but there were some younger ones mixed in. In all of his 300 years, he'd never delivered snow there. He visits New York a few times a winter, and this was just out of the city, so it didn't really make sense. It was like the place didn't exist. Seeing it now, Jack was beginning to think it didn't.

"Is that the place? The one in New York?" Jack questioned, stepping closer to the image. He leaned onto his staff, letting it support his weight as he inspected the scene in front of him. If he ignored the surroundings and the magical creatures, it was almost normal, key word almost. The teens were now speaking with more vigor, adjusting armor, polishing their weapons, and now sporting bronze helmets with brightly colored plumes, almost half had red, the rest had blue. Jack assumed that meant they were splitting into teams.

Tooth fluttered nervously, keeping an eye on the campers as if she were afraid they'd knock a tooth out on their deadly weapons. Way to get your priorities straight, Tooth. North was now grinning down at the winter spirit. "Jack! You made it! Good, good! See what we found! It's weird, no?" Jack glanced back at the kids, they'd now raised two flags, splitting off into their teams and cheering like they'd gotten the world best pep-talk. Then back to North. "Yeah.. but, uh, what are the doing?"

"Don't know. We've been watching them for most of the day. They're a weird bunch, let me tell you- Crikey I think they're playing capture the flag!" Bunnymund, the Easter kangaroo, exclaimed, staring shell-shocked at the screen. Jack turned to look. The campers were running through the forest, hiding their flags on opposite sides of a small stream.

Jack eyed the weapons once more. They were probably bronze, but they gave off a weird, unnatural glow and looked sharp enough to cut his head clean off. He rubbed at his neck absently at the thought.

What kind of camp was this?

As the campers spread out, the screen focused on a small group of teens with blue plumed helmets. Sandy flashed a bunch of images over his head that appeared to mean something along the lines of "could we get sound?" Jack assumed he meant for the video. North stood thinking for a moment scratching at the top of his beard a little before leaning forward and tapping in a slew of commands. The screen grew larger, and the room was filled with the sound of the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey guys, sorry this took so long! I had finals and studying for them took up most of my time. To make up for it I'm going to start chapter 3 tonight, okay? If I don't get stumped that should be up either today or tomorrow. I'd really like to update once or twice a week if possible, but that won't always be possible. My laptop is fickle and my teachers love to give out homework assignments.

Anyway, thank you guys so much for reviewing, following, and adding this to your favorites! I'm so glad you guys like this, and it's awesome to get your guys' feed back!

Special thanks to those who reviewed: Azorawing, Taranodongirl1, RyuNoRainbow, Fighter1357 (hi Elise), and Guest!

Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, I know it's not as good as the last one, but it works. I promise it will get better as we get further into the story.

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**Darcy Yew**

Except for the arrow in her butt, Darcy was having a pretty normal day. She woke up at sunrise, most Apollo kids do, and took a run around the lake with her half-brother Will Solace. Taught archery after breakfast, where the arrow incident had occurred, but she'd rather not talk about that. After lunch she worked on her mediocre sword skills, which were slowly improving to a point where they weren't totally laughable. But the days events are all dwarfed by what was about to go down. The holy grail of camp activities. Capture the flag.

Darcy couldn't fight the grin off her face as she weaved through the woods to her post. Tonight she'd be guarding the blue team flag, currently bearing the Hermes cabin coat of arms. Travis and Connor Stoll tumbled after her, still trying to get their helmets on right. The two were idiotic and annoying, but they were her best friends.

"Keep up you idiots, we don't have all night" Darcy called over her shoulder as quietly as she could. No sense in giving away their location this early on. She could already see the small clearing their team had decided on, and shifted the flag in her hands in anticipation. Darcy **loved** capture the flag. It was the closest she'd ever get to going on an actual quest, so it quickly became the highlight of her week. Apollo kids don't usually get a lot of quests to begin with, but having her fathers blessing meant that she was always needed at camp, in case of emergencies. It used to bug her, but she'd been at camp long enough to get over it. She was never good at the whole 'holding grudges' thing.

"Say Darcy, " Connor shot back as the pair caught up to her sides. "How's your ass?"

"You tell me, you've got the better view." Darcy replied without skipping a beat, throwing him a cocky smirk over her shoulder. Another wonderful trait from her father.

"Fantastic, " Conner said with a grin. "But that's not what I meant."

"Aw, concerned, are you?" Darcy mocked. "And for the record, sore as hell. Now get moving before you find out first hand."

She cast a warning look over her shoulder, and began to set up camp. As she worked, Darcy felt a twinge of annoyance that the other team had gotten the half of the forest with Zeus' fist, the best flag keeping location. As if they already didn't have a huge advantage. But at least it'd be harder to find their flag, probably. Darcy wasn't even really sure where they were exactly. Some clearing a whiles back from the river. Hopefully that meant the others would have a hard time finding them.

She drove the flagpole into the ground, careful to make sure it was flanked by a sufficient group of trees, but still following the rules. The last thing she wanted was for the blue team to loose on a technical foul. Not that they had much of a chance, anyway. Someone had the bright idea to stick Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase on the same team, basically destroying the other teams chance of winning. Fan-freaking-tastic.

"I don't get why we're even trying. We're not going to win tonight." Travis stated, flicking a curl of brown hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, " Connor added, "we're pretty much screwed."

Darcy stood and turned to face the pair. Travis was leaning against a tree, staring out into the forest, and Connor stood a few feet from her with his arms crossed, biting his lip and glancing around as if a hell hound would leap out of the trees at any given moment. _  
_

"Lighten up you two, " Darcy replied, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, "don't you have any faith in me?"

"What are you up to?" Travis asked, leaning fore ward and peering at Darcy questioningly.

"You'll see."

Darcy tugged on the largest charm dangling from her braided charm bracelet, transforming into her bow and ever-full quiver. It was, obviously, a gift from her father. She'd gotten the bracelet on her tenth birthday, bearing one charm, and every year her father would give her another to add on. The extra charms were usually special arrows, but she'd used most of them during the titan war. The others were just for decoration, and she'd usually get something small along with it. First additions of classic literature, things like that.

Now armed, Darcy swung herself up onto the lower branches of a large, sturdy tree with a good view of the flag. Before she climbed any higher, she turned to her partners.

"Alright, I'll stand guard here, you two secure the perimeter. But don't wander too far off. If you can't see the clearing, you're too far. Got it?" She stared at the two, setting her mind for battle.

"Aye aye, Captain." The brothers gave her a mock salute, and were off into the mass of trees.

Darcy wove through the branches, testing their strength and searching for the perfect location. After a few moments, she found a sturdy branch about halfway up the trunk that gave her a nice view of the clearing, and the flag, as well as an alright view of the wooded area beneath her. Satisfied with her find, Darcy perched herself of the branch as comfortably as she could and drew an arrow from the quiver slung over her shoulder.

* * *

It was safe to say that Darcy was probably going insane. It had been nearly an hour since she sent the Stoll brothers off, and absolutely **nothing** had happened since. Not one camper had crossed through into the clearing, and neither of her partners had returned with any news. No "all clear", no anything. A small part of her mind was convinced they had wandered too far and gotten taken prisoner by enemy campers, and that theory was looking better by the minute. She hadn't heard one intruder, and the flag was still waving lazily below. It was way too quiet. And to top it all off, she kept getting the feeling that someone was watching her. She'd gotten jumpy and paranoid, it was just _too damn quiet_.

Letting her nerves get the better of her, Darcy slowly climbed down from her post, and slid to the ground, landing with a quiet _thump._ She righted her posture and slowly scanned the clearing, holding her bow at the ready, an arrow already notched. She slowly made her way to the flag and ran a hand across the cool fabric, trying to find some relief from the paranoia creeping through her.

Deciding that she didn't really care about winning at this point, Darcy left the clearing in pursuit of another camper. Even if she was taken prisoner, at least she'd know what the heck had happened. It'd provide some relief from her overactive imagination, which took to playing tricks on her at times like this.

Darcy managed to reach the river without running into anyone, which really didn't help at all. She recognized this place, at least. This was the boundary line, where Percy Jackson was almost always placed, the place where he'd be most powerful. She couldn't find the camps hero anywhere, and her stomach twisted a little. The situation was getting exponentially worse. Oh, what she wouldn't give for that idiot to jump out of the woods and hit her with a giant wave. Anything was better than this.

_"Maybe I should go find Chiron, "_ Darcy thought, glancing in the general direction of camp, _"he'll know whats going on."_


	3. Chapter 3

Hey! I know I promised to update a lot sooner, and I'm extremely sorry for the wait. I got slammed with homework, and I've started after school gym, so I'm having less and less time to write. Plus, I got a little stumped. Anyways, I finally finished this chapter and I'm going to try to start the next one tonight, but I'm not making any promises. I'm not going to write a special valentines day chapter right now, this story isn't nearly far enough along. Maybe next year, yeah? So think of my finally updating as a little valentines day gift for you guys! Also, to help make up for my slow updating, I've been drawing some concept art for this, and may upload it to DA and link it to you guys, so watch for that.  
Thank you guys so much for your reviews, the feedback is incredible. I'm so glad you guys like this. Thanks to all of you lovely readers for following and favouriting and reading!

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**Darcy Yew**

After twenty minutes of the most torturous walk through the woods she had ever had the displeasure of experiencing, Darcy had reached camp. The sun was long gone and the stars had just begun to dot across the night sky. Darcy squirmed under the moons gaze, she'd felt extremely uncomfortable around it since her first one-on-one chat with Artemis.

Trying to ignore the urge to hide behind her hair, Darcy glanced around. The camp grounds were deserted, silent, and that didn't really sit well with her either. Everyone had retired to their cabins and even Chiron and Mr.D had settled in for the night. A few tufts of smoke still rose from the amphitheater, it's fire only recently put out. And sitting cross-legged on the steps of the dining pavilion was the sleepy figure of her favorite half-brother Will.

Darcy let out a heavy breath as her nerves began to settle back to normal. Keeping her eyes on her brother, Darcy mumbled a hymn from her father to send the arrow and quiver back into their charm forms, securely clamped onto the bracelet on her wrist. Her confidence making its way back to its normal level, Darcy strode across the clearing to wake her brother.

"Hey, " she whispered, shaking him lightly, "Lets get you inside, yeah?"

Will looked up at her with eyes glazed over with sleep.

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Will pushed himself off the step and rubbed at his eyes for a minute before turning to Darcy.

"Hey, " he gave her a smile, though a concerned look hung in his eyes "are you alright?"

"A little shaken up, but I'll be fine. Really"

More like extremely shaken up. Darcy was usually cool-headed, calm, collected, if a bit cocky. But today was different. Athena's kids are terrified of spiders, Apollo's kids are terrified of the dark. And Darcy was no exception.

Will looked a little skeptical, but let it slide. He thew a glance at the cabins then set his eyes back on Darcy, raising his eyebrows as if to say "Ready to go?"

Darcy glanced at the forest from the corner of her eye. For whatever reason, it looked especially creepy tonight. The shadows darker than usual, sprawling out in unnatural patterns. Not wanting to spend any more time near the woods than she had too, Darcy mumbled a soft "yeah.." Prompting Will to start walking to the cabins, Darcy at his heels.

"By the way, what happened? With the game, I mean. " Darcy asked as they walked, shooting a. Confused glance at Will.

"The other team could not, for the life of them, find our flag. It took our entire team, but we got the enemy flag across the border, " Will told her with a grin, "as for you being left in the woods? I imagine that was a the Stoll brothers doing."

Darcy  
Darcy felt a rush of relief as she neared her cabin, it's golden glow settling her nerves once and for all. A fond smile tugged at her lips as she entered the warm, homey cabin she'd spent the better part of her life in.

**Jack Frost**

A terrible feeling churned in the stomachs of the guardians as they watched. First, it was the woods. They were just crawling with nightmare sand, thriving in the dark. But that wasn't nearly as startling as what they found in the camp itself.

Never had Jack seen more nightmare sand in one place. It encircled the city of cabins, making sure to enter each one so no child was spared of bad dreams. And Jack had a terrible feeling that this was a regular occurrence.

The guardians watched in silent horror as the two campers walked casually through the black sand, unaware of its presence.

The two looked strikingly similar, with the same clear blue eyes, sun-kissed skin, slim, athletic figures, and gold colored curls. But there were a few differences as well. The Girls hair was gold if the lighter variety, paler in a sun-bleached wag. The boys was a more exact shade of gold, more closely resembling the precious metal. The girl was dotted with freckles, sprinkled over her arms and legs in small numbers, then dotted across her nose and spilling over onto her cheeks. The boy only had a splash if them across the bridge of his nose. The girl had a slightly childlike demeanor, where as the boy gave off a strong big-brother vibe. And while the boys eyes were purely blue, the girl had a burst of gold around her pupil, reminding Jack of the sun on a clear day. Jack assumed the two were siblings of some kind.

But a question was nagging at Jacks mind. If they couldn't see the nightmare sand, why had it affected the girl so much, back in the forest? None of the other campers seemed bothered by it. Did this have something to do with why manny directed the globe to follow her in particular?

Jack was snapped out of his thoughts when North let out a heavy sigh. Jack, as well as the other guardians, shifted their attention to the big man. North had started pacing back and forth, his heavy brow furrowed.

"This is very bad, " North muttered to himself "very very bad for children."

Tooth fluttered nervously back and forth, her Baby Teeth chattering nervously to one another, stealing glances at the screen every now and then. Bunny was shifting from foot to foot, furry brow furrowed as he thought, his nose twitching absently. Sandy was flashing various question marks, of different fonts and sizes, above his head, a worried look in his face. Jack leaned mostly on his staff, his eyes following Norths movements, and his face set in a worried, confused expression.

Why would Pitch chose this place? It was full of teenagers, with only a few kids. Even for Pitch, it was harder to get older kids to believe in him. What was so different about this particular group of kids? The image if the centaur found its way into his brain again, as well as the other oddities of the camp. Greek battle armor and the most dangerous game of capture the flag he'd ever seen. The winged horses and the lava pouring down the rock wall. The list of strange things about the camp was growing rapidly, and Jack was sure it'd only get weirder from here.

"Well, what are supposed to do?" Jack turned his attention to Bunnymund, who had broken the silence. "The place is crawling with nightmare sand, Pitch is up to something, something bad."

North stopped his pacing and let out a heavy sigh. He stared at bunny, then turned his eyes up to stare at the screen, at the children and the black sand weaving through the cabins, then back to Bunny.

"I don't know why Pitch is there, " an uncharacteristic frown was resting on his face, "but we have to stop him. But not yet. "

Sandy sent off pictures too quickly for Jack to read, very upset about Norths words. Jack stared at North incredulously. These kids were in danger, and they were just going to sit back and let it happen?

"We don't know enough. We will watch. If it gets worse, we will talk to man in moon."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! I know its been like forever, but I finally updated! I have had the absolute worst case of writers block and it just let up. I rewrote this chapter at least five times. So here you guys get a little background info, but not much actual current action. But still, it's something. I can't make any promises about when I'm going to update, but I can promise that I'm not abandoning this story.**

**Also, I'd like to thank all of you that have followed or added my story to their favorites or reveiwed. Thank YOU! You guys are awesome, anyway here it is!**

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**Darcy**

Following the woods incident, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. She'd given the Stoll brothers one hell of a lecture, but ultimately got over it. Camp activities went on normally, and she'd even shrugged off the feeling of being watched, everything had finally calmed down. The days began to feel just as they had before the start of the last great prophecy, maybe even a little better, and everyone was enjoying the new found peace while they could.

Darcy decided to spend this particular afternoon at the beach, basking in the sun all Apollo kids adore, thriving in it's glow. Her bare feet mingling with the warm sand as she took a leisurely stroll, a gentle wind further tousling her hair, the sea salt causing it to curl more than usual. Perfect. She fingered the many clay beads adorning her camp necklace, going over fond memories of her many years at Camp Half Blood. She could still remember the day she arrived vividly:

_Her older brother, Michael, had just gotten home from the last day of the sixth grade. Darcy was 10, two years younger than Michael. Her mother had made them chocolate chip cookies to celebrate the end of the school year, she'd just taken them out of the oven when Carter arrived. Carter was her brother's best friend, an awkward looking kid with dark olive skin, brown curly hair, and big dark eyes to match. He had a strange gait and was the most jittery person Darcy had ever met._

_Her mom said she had invited Carter to spend the night while his parents were out of town, but it wasn't the truth. Not really. Half-way through dinner Carter started acting up, fidgeting in his chair and sniffing around wildly. It was then that things really got interesting._

_Darcy and Michael were sent upstairs to grab the essentials and then hurried outside into the family's dark blue Jeep. They drove through the night, far over the speed limit but too terrified to care. They were being followed the whole way. There was a Dranche, a monster that was a woman from the waist up, but after that her body split into two trunk-sized snake tails. For a while they were able to slow her down. Carter would play these reed pipes that made vines grow around her until they made a tight cacoon. It never lasted more than a couple of hours, and the Drachne was always fast enough to catch back up._

_Their luck ran out on the street leading to half-blood hill. Carter was driving when the Drachne came back. Apparently she'd made some friends, two other snake-women that looked about just as vicious as the origional. Carter sped down the road, before slamming down on the breaks right infront of the hill that was supposed to lead to the camp. Darcy only had a few seconds to get her head to stop spinning before she was ushered out of the car and up the hill._

_Needless to say the Dranche caught up quickly, Darcy could hear them now. They were hissing inceasently, as though they were excited to disembody the young half-bloods. Darcy thought about it for a second, they probably were._

_It was then that her mother started crying. She pulled her children close, telling them that she loved them and would miss them and see them in August. Darcy and Michael hugged her back, their eyes growing misty at the thought of not seeing their mother for the whole summer. But the Drachne were getting closer and they had to move quickly._

_"Run and don't look back! Go past the pine tree and straight for the big blue farmhouse, ask for Chiron!" Their mother yelled as she headed back to the car. As an afterthought, she added "and Michael, take care of your sister, okay?"_

_Michael nodded and tugged Darcy in the direction of the massive pine tree at the top of the hill. Carter was running after them, which Darcy didn't think should be possible. He was far too clumsy on his feet to keep up with them, especially on an incline. But then again, nothing really made sense anymore, so she brushed it off and turned back around and ran faster to keep up with Michael's longer strides._

_Michael crossed the barrier first, then Carter. Darcy had made the mistake of looking back. The Drachne were right behind them, Darcy could see their faces clearly now._

_They were sickly pale, their skin had a weird tint to it and looked vaguely scaly. They had cruel, large eyes with reptilian slit pupils glinting hungrily. Their noses weren't much more than slits in the middle of their faces, and their thin lips were pulled back on menacing grins, revealing teeth that would have looked normal if not for the massive fangs. Darcy was frozen on the spot, she couldn't bring herself to move. Michael was pulling on her arm and screaming at her to move, but she was too scared._

_She was snapped out of it when Michael finally pulled her hard enough to get her to fall over the border, into the safety of camp. Michael helped her up and the trio stumbled over to the big house, recovering from shock. Darcy had nightmares of the Drachne's faces for weeks._

Darcy bit her lip she remembered her old nightmares, but snapped herself out of it. She hadn't seen one of those terrible things in years, and there was no sense in digging up old fears. She was stronger now, the best archer at camp, she had no reason to be afraid. She could take one down easily, she reminded herself, and steered her mind to a different subject. She decided to remember her mother's smile.

It was always so sweet,so loving, and soon Darcy found herself feeling a little homesick. After the war with Kronos, Darcy had decided to become a year round camper. It'd been nearly a year since she saw her mom. She decided she'd send a letter soon, or maybe persuade Chiron to let her use his phone. No, that wouldn't be good enough. She didn't just want to hear her, she wanted to _see_ her. She decided she'd send an iris message as soon as she got her hands on a golden drachma.

"Hey Darcy!" A voice called to her left.

"Carter!" Darcy exclaimed when she turned to face the speaker.

Carter had grown over the years, so he now looked more like a high school freshmen than a sixth grader. He'd gotten taller, and stood more confidently now. His horns poked out at least an inch above his wild curly hair. He was now the best reed piper at camp, and had an amazing track record for always bringing demigods back safely. He'd just gotten back from a long-term mission at a school in Michigan, bringing along two young demigods, a boy and a girl around twelve, the average age of new campers. Darcy wondered how he managed to blend it at a middle school with his current appearance, but didn't question him aloud.

"How'd your mission go?" Darcy asked, slinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Pretty well, we ran into a few monsters, but nothing i couldn't handle." Carter replied, trying to sound much cooler than he was.

Darcy let out a snort of laughter. Carter may have grown up, but he was still a major dork as far as she was concerned.

"Oh I'm sure. Have you talked to Holly yet?" Darcy grinned at him as his face went red. Holly was a dryad and has been Carter's girl friend for the past year.

"Y-yeah, she was at the entrance of camp to greet me when I got back. We had lunch together." Carter was grinning like a fool, so Darcy knew it must have gone well.

A grin tugged at Darcy's lips, it was hard not to smile when Carter was this happy. It radiated off of him and onto her. They still shared an empathy link from the time they got to camp. Darcy and her brother were Carter's first demigods, so they shared a stronger link than the others Carter brought to camp.

The best friends walked down the shoreline, cracking stupid jokes and making small-talk. Darcy had missed this while he was gone. But their fun was interrupted by a conch horn sounding in the distance. Darcy stopped and stared in the direction it came from. It couldn't be time for dinner yet, could it? She furrowed her brow and chewed her lip, trying to think of what else it could possibly be. The weren't any counselor meetings planned for today. Was it an emergency meeting? What could possibly have happened?

_'Only one way to find out' _Darcy thought to herself with a sigh. She slipped her flip-flops back on and headed back to camp.

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**Ta-da! The (really) long awaited update! I was thinking I could do a prequel to this story about Darcy's first years at camp. It'd be a regular PJO fanfiction, without any ROTG stuff. I accidentally already wrote the first two chapters while trying to work on this story, so I think that might be a good idea. It could help me get my creative juices flowing or something without having to worry about having two storylines to follow. So let me know how you feel about that. I might up load the first chapter tonight just to give you guys an idea of how it would be. **

**okay, bye!Hopefully my next update won't take as long as this one!**


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